India’s Ambitious Plans for Solar Power

The popularity of solar panels has grown tremendously over the past decade. In a world that is very focused on being environmentally friendly, it is no wonder why people are spending the time and money to install this amazing new kind of technology.

Through using these kinds of panels, people can effectively use one of nature’s resources, the sun, for power. Since these panels strictly run on power from the light of the sun, they don’t emit greenhouse emissions that can harm the earth through pollution. Also, since the sun obviously does not charge anyone for using its light, people can save a lot of money by using solar panels instead of relying on electrical and gas companies to help power their properties. 

Although some people are more sold on the benefits of solar power than others, it is definitely a growing trend, especially in India. The National Solar Mission reports that India plans on having an installed solar power capacity of 100 GW (gigawatts) by the year 2022. This is an amazing goal, especially when you consider how 2022 is just seven years away. 

Originally, 100 GW by 2022 was not their goal (22 GW was, however). After some evaluation, India decided to enhance their goal. Included in the new 100 GW capacity is 40 GW rooftop power capacity and 57 GW utility-scale solar panel projects. Many people feel that this is very ambitious, but India shows no signs of backing down or recalling their plans.

If the country succeeds in having 100 GW power capacity by 2022, they will have met a truly amazing goal. Currently, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy in India has made a goal of adding 200 MW (megawatts) rooftop solar capacity. They also plan on increasing this number to to 4.8 GW between the years 2016 and 2017. The gigawatts will only increase from there until the year 2022.

As effective as it is to use this kind of technology, it can be very expensive, especially on the massive scale India is planning to use it on. Even though it will cost a pretty penny, state governments, through their own policies and regulations, will commission these projects.  According to Clean Technica, the central government as well as the state governments will organize to help set up the utility-scale power projects. 

Even though it will be very expensive for India to pursue this route of sun-powered technology, it will be groundbreaking and will show the world how effective it can be to use solar energy.